Prior art of possible relevance includes the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,400,577 issued Sept. 10, 1968 to List; 3,423,998 issued Jan. 28, 1969 to Blomgren; 3,577,776 issued May 4, 1971 to Brown, 3,750,463 issued Aug. 7, 1973 to Erwin; 3,835,700 issued Sept. 17, 1974 to Gamble; 3,908,450 issued Sept. 30, 1975 to Schreiber; and 4,061,024 issued Dec. 6, 1977 to Erwin.
Many devices have been proposed for measuring the flow of fuel to a fuel pump or the like which in turn delivers the fuel to a fuel consuming apparatus such as an internal combustion engine. In a large number of cases, fuel is provided to the fuel pump in excess of its delivery capabilities to insure that the fuel pump is never starved for fuel and unable to deliver fuel quantities then being demanded by operating conditions of the fuel consuming apparatus itself. Heretofore, in such instances, accurate fuel flow measurement has been difficult to achieve in state-of-the-art apparatus for the systems may provide instantaneous readings varying by as much as ten percent for a steady state operating condition of the fuel consuming apparatus. This is due to the reliance of present day systems upon float valve controls in the systems as will be explained in greater detail hereinafter.
Moreover, these prior art systems have a relatively slow response rate to changes in fuel flow as, for example, when the operating condition of the fuel consuming apparatus is changed. When a new fuel consumption rate is established, such float valve systems take a considerable period of time to stabilize at a new fuel flow rate.
Thus, there exists a considerable need for a new and improved fuel flow measuring apparatus and method which minimizes variations in sensed flow rate and which has a rapid response to change in the fuel flow rate.